


no man is an island (look at the horizon)

by skitzofreak



Series: stardust in your spine [6]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bodhi worries about his friends, Cassian worries about his skills, Established but New Relationship, F/M, Flirting, Jyn worries about her place, Minor Violence, Mission Fic, Rated for swearing, Spy Stuff, Tumblr Prompt, and drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-04 00:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12759543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skitzofreak/pseuds/skitzofreak
Summary: Another prompt by Ivaylo/ @crazy-fruit, although this time I managed to keep it to 10k words! The prompt was "Cassian is trying to flirt with a Twi'lek target, and failing, until Jyn steps in and takes over." I sort of went a little sideways with it, but hopefully this is what you wanted? (As for my screwed up timeline, this takes place a few days after the end of "between your bones and your soul.")





	no man is an island (look at the horizon)

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt by Ivaylo/ @crazy-fruit, although this time I managed to keep it to 10k words! The prompt was "Cassian is trying to flirt with a Twi'lek target, and failing, until Jyn steps in and takes over." I sort of went a little sideways with it, but hopefully this is what you wanted? (As for my screwed up timeline, this takes place a few days after the end of "between your bones and your soul.")

“I have to admit,” Bodhi said with a rueful smile around his slightly chattering teeth, “when I used to picture rebel spies, it, uh, it tended to feature more, you know, explosions and cool gadgets than…” he glanced down at the datapad in Cassian’s hand and gave a comical grimace, “holonet dating services.”

“We take what information we can, no matter where it comes from,” Cassian shrugged, the fur of his parka hood ruffling a little around his ears. “You would be amazed how much people are willing to tell the holonet, especially sites like Gravity and Starcrossed.” The three of them were huddled together in the passenger cabin of the old HWK-290 they’d been assigned for this operation. It was in decent enough shape, but the primary heating unit was crap and the secondary was broken, so Bodhi had a rough wool blanket wrapped around him, Cassian had another blanket over his lap in addition to his heavy blue parka, and Jyn wore her scarf.

“Or what they’re willing to tell strangers they meet on those sites,” Jyn added from Cassian’s other side, where she sat with her legs crossed on the bench, one knee resting casually against his thigh. Cassian appeared to ignore it, but every now and again he would drop his hand to his leg and brush the back of his knuckles against her knee before lifting it back to his datapad, as if he were checking she was still there. Bodhi wondered if they thought they were being subtle, and didn’t know whether to laugh or roll his eyes.

“The organic desire to network is a highly exploitable flaw,” K2SO remarked from his spot against the opposite wall, where he was plugged into a charging station. The lights on his dark chassis blinked rhythmically as his metal hands disassembled the ship’s secondary heater coil, methodically pulling apart the aging pieces.

“Most droids are also designed to network to some capacity, Kay,” Cassian replied mildly, not looking up from his own screen.

“And it is also an exploitable flaw,” Kay shot back without rancor.

“It’s not a _flaw_ to need people,” Bodhi scowled at the droid’s implacable face. “I mean, it’s like backup, nothing wrong with having, having _backup_ , right? Or, I mean, or with - ”

“Flaw or not, it’s still exploitable.” Jyn interrupted, suddenly leaning across Cassian’s chest to wave her own datapad at Bodhi. “Here, look.”

Bodhi also leaned in to get a good look at her screen, ignoring the quiet amused grunt Cassian made as they crowded into his space from both sides. Jyn had composed a list of twelve names, with a small picture underneath each one and a short description paragraph she’d compiled that included birthdays, residences, places of work, official job titles, estimates of personal wealth and –

“Wait, are they _all_ officers?” Bodhi blinked in surprise as he saw the rank listed beside each image.

“Captain or above,” Jyn replied with obvious satisfaction. “And every one of them linked their Gravity account to their Nebula Net account, which connects to their Shimmer, their Quantagram, and their LinkedImp accounts.” She glanced at Bodhi sideways and gave her sharp-edged smile. When Bodhi was a child, he had loved stories of the Toothy Tooka, who spoke in riddles and grinned at its prey just before it gobbled them up. When Jyn smiled like that, he could almost hear the old storytellers of his youth whispering _and do you wish to walk amongst the mad with me, child?_ “I know more about them now than their own mothers, I bet.”

“I, uh, sure hope so,” Bodhi muttered, catching sight of an open chat window on her screen and reading the last thing the lonely officer had written her. He blanched a little, too, because honestly, who even needed to know _that?_

She saw where he was looking, and snorted. “Best part about that one,” Jyn’s smile grew even sharper ( _I growl when I am happy, the Toothy Tooka grinned, and so perhaps I am also a little mad_ ), “is that he’s actually married, _and_ has a mistress on the side.”

“And he’s secretly looking for a third?” Bodhi blinked. “Who even has that kind of time?”

“Bored Imperial officers who got their office jobs through nepotism,” Cassian answered cynically from behind their shoulders. Bodhi glanced back and realized that he and Jyn had drawn closer together, effectively boxing Cassian against the wall. His friend didn’t seem particularly fussed about it, he had simply leaned his head back against the cabin wall and was watching them through half-closed eyes. If Bodhi didn’t know better, he’d think Cassian was only a few moments from dropping into a doze.

Bodhi sat back up a bit sheepishly, and pointedly did not notice that Jyn took a beat longer to right herself. “So, um, how many of your,” he shot a wary look at the datapad in Jyn’s hand, “ _lonely hearts_ are we actually going to have to meet?”

“None of these,” Jyn flicked a dismissive hand at her screen.

“Which is fortunate,” Kay deadpanned. “Considering the various interactions you have been promising them.”

Bodhi stared at the droid. “Uh, what?”

“I’ve got Kay patched in as a backup firewall,” Jyn said dismissively, although she was looking at Cassian now. “In case any of them try to back trace me, and I’m too distracted talking to one of the others.”

“Good call,” Cassian murmured, although he threw a quick look across at Kay that Bodhi couldn’t quite read. “So you’re reading these chats too?”

“They are irritating and boring,” Kay said flatly.

“You’d appreciate them more if you’d let me install that sexbot language subroutine,” Jyn said in a teasing tone. Beside her, Cassian’s head snapped up, and Bodhi hastily coughed to cover his laugh at the spy’s concerned expression. “Otherwise it’s just a lesson in anatomy.” She winced. “Bad anatomy.”

“Jyn,” Cassian murmured softly, exasperation warring with fondness in his voice. Jyn tilted her chin at him and smirked in challenge, and his expression shifted into something warmer. Bodhi wondered if he ought to go huddle in the cockpit after all, freezing air be damned.

“I have no interest in understanding the nuances of these conversations,” Kay said waspishly, pulling all of their attention back to the other side of the room. He lifted his glowing optics from the heater coil and focused on the three humans across from him, and his voicebox shifted into something that sounded like grudging respect.  “However, Jyn Erso is remarkably adept at convincing human males to give her extortionate amount of credits in exchange for naked images.”

This time Bodhi turned his incredulous stare at Jyn, and she laughed. “Relax,” she cocked an eyebrow at him. “I sliced a stock-holo site and took some of their cheaper porn images. A few hundred thousand credits from these fools will keep us operating without Alliance support,” she waved a hand that encompassed the four of them and the old, battered ship. “And it really isn’t taking that much imagination, not for these bottled-up bastards. I’m mostly repeating the same conversation a dozen times.”

“Aren’t you worried they’ll, ah, recognize the,” Bodhi made an abortive hand gesture, frowning in concern and a tiny bit of embarrassment, “um, the porn?”

“Most of them think I’m non-human,” she said bluntly.

“…so?”

“Imperial regulations strictly forbid the use of Imperial networks for profane or obscene purposes,” Kay informed him. “The list of sites classified as “obscene” does not include most human-centric pornography, while anything involving non-human nudity is immediately added to the ban list. Noncompliance with Imperial culturally approved sexuality is often detrimental to career progression.”

“No Imperial officer on a Core world would ever dare admit that they found a non-human appealing,” Cassian translated flatly. “It’s not much better in the other regions.”

Bodhi chewed on that for a minute, then looked up at Jyn. “So you are selling stolen porn to sexually repressed Imperial officers to support covert rebel operations,” he said slowly. “Okay, that, uh, that sounds less like a spy holo and more like a standard, you know, holonet scam.”

This time, the edge of Jyn’s smile was sharp enough to cut, and had entirely too many teeth. “Welcome to the glorious rebellion.”

“It is a tedious but efficient means of income,” Kay grabbed a broken metal strut form the heating unit and neatly snapped it in half like a twig between his heavy black fingers. ( _But I do not wish to walk amongst the mad, says the storyteller in the lost streets of Bodhi’s childhood home. Oh you cannot help that, child, for we are all of us mad here._ )

“Supporting ourselves eases the financial burden from Command,” Cassian nodded slightly, although Bodhi thought his bland expression was just a touch more sour than usual as he glanced at Jyn’s datapad. “And gives us more operational freedom.”

“Like funds to buy new jackets,” Jyn smirked at him. “You know, to blend in on different worlds,” she added innocently when Cassian raised an eyebrow at her.

“Can you get enough from those guys to pick up a new heater coil?” Bodhi sniffed and tugged his blanket a bit tighter.   

“That’s the plan,” she said serenely, and went back to tapping at her multiple open chat windows. She shifted her weight, and Bodhi didn’t look too close but he had a feeling she was now sitting a little nearer to Cassian’s side than before.

“So if not one of Jyn’s, uh, marks,” Bodhi rubbed his gloved hands together for a moment to get some blood flowing through his cold fingers, then picked up his own datapad and went back to calculating fuel burns for various escape routes they might need from this oncoming operation. “Who are we meeting on Kothlis?”

“Her,” Cassian tapped at his screen and the image of a pretty blue-skinned Twi’lek woman filled it. “Alnada Vadith.”

“A Twi’lek is an Imperial operative?”

Cassian didn’t lift his gaze from his datapad as he closed the image and brought back up the profile he had been reading. “She belongs to a security company that caters to Imperial elites. Of course, they consider themselves a neutral organization.” The evenness of his voice almost hid the disgust lurking underneath it. Bodhi and Jyn exchanged a quick look across his chest. Cassian, Bodhi knew, was Alliance down to his bone marrow, and had been since – well, Bodhi didn’t know precisely, but for a very long time, anyway. And however close they were sitting now, Bodhi remembered the fight after Eadu, everyone dripping wet and half-deaf from the explosions, and Jyn and Cassian three inches from each other’s faces speaking with low, hard voices just barely audible over the hum of the stolen shuttle’s engine. Bodhi remembered, all too clearly, the vicious curve of Cassian’s smile when he leaned down and said, almost sweetly, _we don’t all have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care_.

_Bodhi, my son, his mother smiles and brushes her frail, shaking fingers over his new grey uniform as he presses his first paycheck into her other hand. Oh, my good son, my brave boy._

_This junk is worse than eating actual garbage, the rebel mechanic complains as he pokes at his protein gelatin in the mess hall, but Jyn just shrugs, her boney shoulders scraping against the faded orange sleeve of Bodhi’s secondhand flight suit. No, she says indifferently, it isn’t._

“Right. So what are we hoping to, uh, get from this security lady?” Bodhi asks cautiously, swallowing back the memories and refocusing on his list. They would need at least three hundred credits for fuel alone as soon as they landed, and the docking fees in Kothlis were exorbitant. Jyn’s holonet admirers would probably cover that, but Bodhi could go looking for a sabaac table and maybe contribute to the mission pot himself. Not like he’d have much else to do while Jyn and Cassian handled the Twi’lek.

“Cassian will exploit her emotional networking needs to gain information that will allow us access to the Imperial contract that we wish to disrupt,” Kay said primly, snapping apart the last of the heating coils’ circuit boards and dropping a clearly fried-out connector to the floor indifferently. “And Jyn will be his backup, while you and I wait on the ship.”

Cassian’s grimace was gone before it fully formed on his face. “More or less,” he agreed quietly.

Jyn shifted again, and this time she was clearly pressing her side against Cassian’s. Cassian didn’t blink, but Jyn shot a hooded look around the small room. Bodhi gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile and then looked resolutely back to his datapad. “You can take some of the credits I’m getting here and find us a new heater while we scope the operating area,” she said casually. “So the trip home won’t be as fucking frigid.”

“We might get a secondary objective,” Cassian told them both, still scrolling through his profile. “I didn’t get the go ahead yet, but I know Command was thinking of sending someone to Cadomai Prime for a potential recruiting situation.”

“Cadomai Prime?” Jyn’s eyes widened, and then narrowed. “That’s an _ice planet_ ,” she said accusingly, and Bodhi groaned and clapped one cold hand to his forehead in dismay.

“Yes.” The darkness in Cassian’s voice was gone now, a trace of a smile on his lips as he glanced from Bodhi’s miserable frown to Jyn’s fierce glare. “So it would be good to fix the heater before then.”

“Busted equipment, cold noses, and holonet scams,” Bodhi sighed and settled his blanket more securely around his neck. “Definitely not like in the spy holos.”

“I could blow something up for you?” Jyn offered solemnly, peering around Cassian again, her shoulder pressed to his. ( _Have I gone mad as well? the child asks the Toothy Tooka, and Bodhi has never identified with a fictional character more.)_

He pursed his lips, glanced from the soft lines of Cassian’s face as he watched her from the corner of his eye to the wary humor in Jyn’s exaggerated seriousness, and sighed elaborately. “Maybe next time,” he said, and then pushed himself to his feet and hugged his rough blanket tight. “Come on, Kay, let’s go see if we can’t coax a little more effort out of the primary heater for now. Before we all freeze to death in the cold uncaring vacuum of space.”

“Kay won’t,” Cassian said with a half-smile at his droid friend. “He can survive in space.”

“Well, good for Kay,” Bodhi grumbled, ambling out into the ancient (and probably stolen) freighter while Kay clumped in his wake. “But the rest of us are going to risk losing bits soon.”

“Humans,” the Imperial security droid said firmly, while behind him the deadliest woman Bodhi had ever known snuggled closer to the rebel spy who almost murdered her father, “are very poorly designed creatures.”

_(Perhaps you are indeed mad, the Toothy Tooka grins a crescent moon grin, but in my experience, all the best people are.)_

 

\--

 

“It’s an alright place. Good music,” Alnada Vadith said casually, leaning against the bar with her fluorescent drink in her hand and surveying the reasonably busy cantina she’d chosen for their meeting. Date, Cassian reminded himself with a mental shake, not a _meeting_. This was meant to be a _date_. He gripped his own drink and leaned beside her, pretending to follow her gaze around the brightly lit mid-level bar as he nodded supportively.

“Very nice,” he agreed. _It’s a cantina_ , he thought. _Exactly like every other Imperially regulated cantina within five systems of this place, with overpriced drinks and pretentiously named snack foods_. (During the mission prep, Bodhi had called this place a ‘date night special,’ and Jyn called it a ‘target rich environment.’ He remembered her smirk as she said it, too, fingers tapping restlessly on her thigh as she read over his shoulder with her breath ghosting along his collarbone. _Thief,_ he’d joked quietly, and she’d shifted her hand to her blaster – his blaster, the one she’d stolen not twenty minutes after he’d met her out in the hangar of Yavin IV – and quirked her eyebrow at him in obvious agreement. If Bodhi hadn’t sighed dramatically from Cassian’s other side, he would have kissed that expression off her face.)

But that wasn’t a helpful line of thought. Neither was thinking about sightlines from the upper levels, or scanning the lower bar for shadowy places where Jyn might have tucked herself. Internally grousing that the bar had tech-scanners good enough to pick up on an earpiece wasn’t getting him closer to his goal, neither was feeling cut off without Jyn or Bodhi or Kay speaking in his ear throughout the op. He wondered what they were saying to each other, if Jyn was safely in place, or Kay was calculating the odds that -

Dammit, _none_ of his thoughts were particularly helpful at the moment. Cassian mentally shook himself again and tried to ease back into the man he was pretending to be tonight. Derek Holter would not be looking for snipers in the rafters, Derek Holter would not have someone standing by in the background to watch for attackers. Derek Holter was a middle class local boy with a comfortable lifestyle and no known military experience. He worked as a case manager for a hiring company that contracted bodyguards and personal security contracts. It gave him just enough overlap with Alnada Vadith’s home and business security job to have some openings for conversation without sounding suspicious. He hoped.

Not that he was doing great with _finding_ those openings. He’d been standing here with Vadith for almost twenty minutes, and they’d barely spoken at all. And it wasn’t that she had no interest in him – her Gravity profile had asked for “higher percentile stature, countershading pigmentation preferred, anthropoid biology,” and she had eyed him appreciatively enough when he walked up to greet her. By now he ought to have her smiling and pressing in close to him, asking her gentle questions about her interests and her family while he led her to the information he wanted.

Instead, he was standing silently and wondering what his team was doing while his target twirled her glass in one hand. “I like this bar. But I mostly only come here on Tuesdays,” Vadith said quickly, glancing at him like she expected judgment when she ought to already be comfortable with him. “You know, because my favorite bartender is back there. Too busy, the rest of the time.” She shifted her weight and took another sip of her drink, shrugging as if she were wholly indifferent instead of relaxing into his questions.

He was…somewhat off his game tonight, it seemed.

( _Tall, dark, and humanoid_ , Jyn smirked at him and made a show of looking him over from head to toe. _You know Kay fits that better than you? Maybe we should send him instead and you can_ \-  and this time he cut her off with a kiss, because he was allowed to do that now, allowed and _welcomed_ and – damn, he was drifting again. Focus.)

“I don’t recognize the song,” he tried to bring the conversation around to something neutral. “It’s good. You know it?”

Vadith raised a blue eyebrow and smiled. “ _Pretty_ , by Singular Route,” she said with a slight hint of incredulity, and the cultural briefing for this system flashed through Cassian’s memory. Popular band, huge following among adolescent to middle-aged females, and highly promoted by Imperial-approved media for their completely controversy-free message and mind-numbingly sweet, non-inflammatory commentary. The song playing was, he recalled a moment too late, their most recent hit, and if he were local, he would absolutely recognize it.

“Right, that’s what it is,” he said stupidly, grinning sheepishly and gratified that at least the target seemed to like that. He scratched at his jawline as if he were self-conscious about the lapse, and watched her hands flick from his face to his fingers and then back out at the bar. “I forgot for a minute.”

“It’s been all over the holo,” Vadith tilted her head curiously. “Almost a bit too much,” she wrinkled her nose cutely, her blue eyes catching the lights of the bar and shimmering in an almost mesmerizing pattern. Glimmer contacts. Good for obscuring the retina from scanners, but also extremely obvious and attention-catching. Designed for civilian use as a cosmetic means of enhancing the eyes.

“I turned off my music stream in self-defense,” Cassian held up his hands and shrugged shyly. “I’d almost gotten free, too.” He balanced his tone carefully between humor and humility, just some poor fool caught in an awkward social moment and no more.

Vadith angled her body towards him, her smile less polite and significantly more warm now. “Well, sorry to hook you back in, Derek.”

“I’ll survive, I think,” he tilted his chin down and looked up at her through his eyelashes, noting how her eyes widened slightly and she unconsciously leaned forward.  Good, he was getting back on track. He just had to find some way to bring up her work, then segue into the new contract her company was pulling with a weapons contractor newly aligned with the Imperial base on Korthlis.

Cassian opened his mouth, and stalled.

He could not think of one thing to say, not even a boring pleasantry or a vague compliment. His mind was, for the first time since he was a nervous boy charming his first target, completely blanked out. (The last time he’d been this uncertain, this awkward and unsure, he’d been lying in a hospital bed in MedWard4, blinking against the too-bright lights while Jyn curled in the chair by his bed and solemnly watched his face. Bruises had littered her skin, and he kept thinking there was white sand in her hair, the faint scent of burning atmosphere lingering between them while he hunted for a way to ask if she was going to stay.)

  “Aren’t you hot?” Vadith asked abruptly, gesturing with her drink at his chest and snapping him out of his aimless thoughts (again, _dammit_ , Andor, _focus_ ). Cassian glanced down at his leather jacket and shrugged one shoulder.

“Not really,” he said, and then noticed the dark blue flush in Vadith’s face, realized a moment too late that she thought she was being forward. He forced his face into a pleasant smile, not too wide lest it turn into a leer, and gestured back at her. “Aren’t you cold?” He mirrored her gesture back, pointing his drink at her silver see-through shirt over a dark tank top that hugged her curves and flaunted her cleavage. ( _Her attire indicates openness to intimacy_ , Kay said just before Cassian tugged his earpiece free and handed it to Jyn outside the bar. _That increases the likelihood you will succeed with your objective by ten percent.)_

(He didn’t know how Jyn had reacted to that statement. He hadn’t looked.)

“Oh, it’s still pretty warm this time of year,” Vadith’s shy smile was a little at odds with the way she leaned her elbows against the bar and tilted her upper body toward him, the motion pressing her breasts together and making her exposed cleavage that much more pronounced. “It won’t really get cold until late tonight.”

“It’s been colder this season than usual,” he murmured, then had to take a quick drink to hide the wince, because something was fucking _wrong_ with him tonight. The weather? He was talking about the weather? True, it had been several months since he pulled a charm-and-run interrogation, but this sort of thing had been his bread and butter for years before that. He knew how to smile, knew how to flirt, knew how to ask innocuous questions that never even seemed remotely dangerous until he had all the pieces he needed. He knew how to lead a target to exactly the point where they trusted him, and then he knew how to extract himself before anything pushed into territory that left him vulnerable in turn. There was a _reason_ Command chose him for these kinds of missions.

And yet here he was, with a perfectly willing target and an excellent cover story that fed right into the conversation he needed to have with her…and he had nothing. The Twi’lek blinked at him and bit her lower lip slightly, also obviously hunting for something to say to fill the little awkward silence that he should never have allowed to settle between them.

Cassian took another drink and deliberately dropped his slightly tense shoulders, let the smile on his face relax into something a bit more neutral and less forced.

“Look, Derek,” Vadith set her mostly-empty glass on the bar and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry if I’m not great at this. I’m, um, well it’s been awhile, so if you’ll just maybe bear with me a bit…?”

Force help him, she was making this so easy and he was _still_ failing. A year ago, he would have had this woman wrapped around his finger by now. Cassian smiled and nodded kindly, “No, no, it’s fine, I’m, ah,” he ducked his head again, playing up the awkwardness to be endearing and making his voice sound as young and sympathetic as he could. “Me too, I guess,” he set down his own glass and debated taking her hand, because gentle physical contact and a steady gaze often triggered powerful empathy in humanoid species. Before he could move, however, Vadith reached across and ran her hand tentatively up his arm to his shoulder and

(Jyn dug her knuckles into the knots on his back, mapping out the muscles she had learned specifically to relieve his pain, her calloused fingers trailing faint lines of heat from his shoulders to the back of his neck, and when she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his nape, Cassian’s heart pounded in his chest - )

 _Oh_ , Cassian thought. _There it is._

It had never mattered, before. This type of con, this little dance of small-scale intrigue and exploiting physical desire, it had never been more than a means to an extremely important end. Not even a particularly involved means, either. Getting information from a target depended on them being relatively sober and capable of focusing on something besides sex. Once a meeting - _date_ , dammit, he was seriously out of practice at this - moved into the purely physical, well, Cassian either had everything he needed, or everything he was going to get. Extraction was as simple as excusing himself for the refresher, or letting the target drink themselves into a stupor and then quietly getting up and leaving.

Neither of those would be viable options tonight, not at the rate he was going. Time to change tactics. Cassian sighed slightly, letting his head drop even more, like he was frustrated with himself (not entirely an act), and then reached up and rested his hand against hers for a moment.

He dropped his voice and made it scrape a little with what sounded like raw emotion. “To be honest, I’ve never quite tried this with a…” _careful, don’t hold the pause too long, just long enough to sound a little lost but sincere_ , “a _lady_ like you before.” Cassian took Vadith’s hand from his shoulder, kissed the inside of her wrist softly, and then set her hand back on the bar. “So maybe we both take it a little slow, yes?” He let his smile grow just a touch sad (ignored the small, cynical part of him that recognized the starry eyed expression she made at the ‘troubled, lonely man’ act), and tried to look like a man who just needed the right love to come along and save him from the…what? Darkness? Solitude? Not important, her personal desires would fill in the blanks.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Vadith smiled back, although now she looked less embarrassed. Well, he’d shown more vulnerability than her, which effectively put her in a position of emotional superiority. It closed him off from talking about her work, though – that would be too impersonal after his act. Cassian picked his drink back up and reassessed his options.

Alright, tonight was a bad night. Those happened. He could still salvage it, though. The operation would just extend from one night to a few nights, maybe even a week or so. It wouldn’t be the first time this sort of thing had happened. He had to stay just friendly enough with her to maybe arrange another date another night, find a different venue, maybe, and then he could –

_“Carbuncles to form in your corrupted blood!”_

Cassian froze as the rough Hutt words cut through the general noise of the bar. Behind him, something heavy crashed to the ground, and then slid across the floor. Cassian’s reflexes finally kicked in, and he spun around in time to see a bulky Devaronian skid to a stop in a twitching heap at his feet.  Vadith gave a little squeal as the Devaronian rolled over, groaning. A human woman stalked after him, and the big horned man cringed as she stomped by his head, glancing down at him with contemptuous dismissal as she passed.

She stopped a few steps away, her chin tilted in challenge, her kohl-rimmed eyes wide and bright with the adrenaline of a fight. (She pivoted on her heel in the narrow Jedhan alley, graceful as a dancer, and slammed a black truncheon into the stormtrooper’s skull-like helmet hard enough that Cassian could hear the man’s neck crack as his head snapped to the side under the brutality of her blow. Gerrera’s best lieutenant, his feral child, a wildfire burning with rage and pride and _need_.)

Cassian reminded himself to breathe.

“Oh,” Jyn said flatly, “It’s _you._ ”

Vadith blinked in surprise, looking from Jyn to Cassian and back. “Uh, hello?”

“Holton,” Jyn growled with poorly disguised disdain. Cassian raised his drink slowly in a sardonic salute, his face as completely neutral as he could make it. Jyn raised an unimpressed eyebrow and crossed her arms. “You gave me the Tershin contract,” she said accusingly. “I explicitly told you _not_ to give me the Tershin contract.”

Cassian’s mind raced; he had to react quickly or whatever con Jyn was pulling would collapse. The target turned from Jyn back to him, her face uncertain as she wrapped her arms around her torso and hugged herself. Cassian shrugged, setting his drink down and scratching at his jawline again thoughtfully. “I’m sorry, Foster,” he said in a tone that indicated he was anything but. “You were the only one available with the right qualifications.”

Jyn rolled her eyes. “Tershin is a whiney bitch who thinks everyone from his business rivals to his own mother wants to kill him. He’s going to be a massive pain in the arse.” She stomped forward and roughly shoved herself between Cassian and the Twi’lek, signaling the bartender impatiently. Over her head, Cassian met Vadith’s eyes. She stared at him with raised eyebrows, glancing from him to the intruder. Cassian sighed slightly, a man interrupted by a work friend with bad manners, and tried to pick apart what Jyn wanted him to do here. Get into an argument with her? How would that help? Or did she think the Twi’lek was a threat somehow? She did have a worrying habit of putting herself between him and -  ( _Don’t look,_ she whispered hoarsely in his ear as they staggered out of the tower at Scarif. Two bodies lay slumped across the threshold, the muted greens and browns of their filthy uniforms a stark contrast against the unyielding grey of the tower structure. _Just keep moving_ , Jyn twisted her shoulder and turned him away from the bodies of men he had known, men he had grown up around, men he had led – _just stay with me, Cassian. Stay with me.)_

In the bar on Kothlis, Jyn turned and looked at the target. “Hi,” she said in an indifferent voice. “You here with the asshole?” She jerked her head at Cassian without looking.

“Ah, yeah,” Vadith shot Cassian a startled look.

“Well, he won’t hit you, but he’s a jackass who doesn’t listen when you tell him not to do stupid shit,” Jyn told her authoritatively. Cassian looked down and away briefly as if offended by the words, biting the inside of his cheek to stop the smile. “Like giving you a shitty contract to guard a stupid paranoid dummkopf after you tell him not to.”

“So you’re a…bodyguard?” Vadith hazarded, looking Jyn up and down, clearly dubious. Her expression cleared a little when the Devaronian on the floor painfully heaved himself up to his full two meter height, clasping one heavy clawed hand to his head and groaning again. Vadith’s mouth fell open slightly as the Devaronian looked sideways at Jyn’s back, and then stumbled away quickly. Jyn never turned around. Vadith’s eyes widened, then shone slightly as the light caught the glimmer contacts.  No, Cassian corrected himself with distinct amusement, Vadith had angled her head specifically to catch the lights of the bar as she eyed Jyn’s impassive scowl.

Working with a team was turning out to be significantly more interesting than he had ever imagined.

Jyn grabbed her drink from the bartender, something green and viscous, and slammed a third of it back in one quick gulp. “Yeah.” She turned and gave the Twi’lek the same look right back. “You?” She asked in a tone just as dubious.

“No, no, I’m holo security,” Vadith smiled self-deprecatingly and flapped a hand. “Desk job in administration, actually. Not nearly as exciting.”

“If you keep the paychecks sorted for the grunts,” Jyn jabbed a thumb at herself, “then it’s fucking _fascinating_ , sweetheart.”

Vadith laughed. “Well, I do like to make sure my people are taken care of.”

Jyn threw back another long draught of her drink, and her free hand came up to brusquely shove a loose lock of hair behind her ear on Cassian’s side. Her fingers trailed briefly around the curve of her earlobe, and then drifted to her jacket pocket. Cassian cleared his throat softly in acknowledgement. He would have to go outside to put his earpiece in. Was something wrong? Bodhi had gotten in trouble, or Kay had, more likely. Jyn must be providing him an escape to deal with…whatever she hadn’t been able to deal with.

That didn’t make sense. What could come up that Jyn needed _him_ to handle? Cassian swallowed back the surge of fear in his chest and throat, and leaned forward slightly just as Jyn shifted her weight, leaving her pocket open long enough for him to slip his hand in and grab his earpiece. He risked a glance to Vadith, but the Twi’lek was sipping her own drink and watching Jyn over the rim. Cassian curled his fingers around the earpiece and swept another look around the bar, checking for a potential threat bad enough to send Jyn in after him. Nothing caught his eye – even the Devaronian had cleared out. Maybe it was Bohdi, _shit_ , was something wrong back at the port?

Jyn slammed her drink back to the bar top and turned her back completely on him, facing Vadith. “So,” she propped her elbow on the bar and asked conversationally. “You work with anyone I know? Gordeshi? Wilu?”

“Oh, _Wilu_ ,” Vadith rolled her eyes, her whole body relaxing and her voice lilting with friendliness. “ _That_ guy. You know him?”

 _And she’s in_ , Cassian thought. He set his drink down carefully and stepped slightly away, slowly pulling himself out of Vadith’s line of direct sight. He’d still have to say goodbye to her, it would draw attention and possibly disrupt Jyn’s conversation with the target if he just walked away. But his partner was already working the woman through the names they needed, gaining a rapport, and in about an hour or so she would probably have everything they needed to get on with sabotaging the actual contract and completing the objective.

“Oh, um, Derek,” the Twi’lek called as he slunk a little further back. Cassian paused and arranged his face into something he hoped looked mildly disappointed instead of worried. “Ah, leaving?” She asked weakly.

Jyn glanced at him over her shoulder, sipping her drink with her eyes half closed. Cassian carefully kept his gaze on the target. “Well, if Foster’s taking the Tershin contract,” he raised an eyebrow at Jyn when she snorted derisively, “then I should probably get her paperwork filled out. Maybe prep a few damage reports for the inevitable chaos,” he smirked at her.

Jyn flicked her fingers at him dismissively. “Jackass,” she said again bluntly, and then turned her attention back to the Twi’lek. “Don’t feel too sorry for him. Tershin owns a karking gizka.” She grimaced. “As a _pet._ ”

“Oh no,” Vadith giggled in sympathetic horror. Cassian slipped away into the crowd, weaving through the bar until he reached the side door and into the connecting alley. A drunk human slumped at the far end of the alley, singing off key to himself as he chugged from a bottle tucked into a brown paper bag. Cassian moved to the opposite end and tucked his earpiece in. It took a second for the ‘piece to register his body heat and come online, and then he heard a faint crackle and –

“- seventy-three percent chance he will conclude that you are in imminent danger, and – “

“He might think it’s you,” Bodhi’s voice cut across Kay’s, sounding defensive. “I mean, you get in just as much trouble as the rest of us.”

“I, however,” Kay replied sniffily, “am significantly less likely to be in physical danger –“

“What’s happened?” Cassian snapped.

A pause, the faint surprised squawking noise Bodhi tended to make when he was startled, and then Kay said, “Hello, Cassian. You will be pleased to know that this line is secure.”  

“Cassian! Are you okay? And everyone is fine,” Bodhi added quickly. “Or, uh, _we_ are fine, I mean. Are you? Fine?”

Cassian propped himself up against the wall at the mouth of the alley and eyed the drunk several meters away as the man launched into a tuneless rendition of… _Pretty_ , by Singular Route, it sounded like. Cassian grimaced and folded his arms. “Fine,” he said shortly. “Why did Jyn signal me to extract?”

“Um, she said you were in trouble?” Bodhi cleared his throat. “Or, I thought that’s what she said. Maybe I was, was wrong?”

 “Jyn came outside of the establishment to inform us that you appeared to be in trouble,” Kay informed him. “She said she was going to rescue you.”

“I…see,” Cassian said slowly. “Right.”

“So everything’s okay?” Bodhi asked carefully.

“If you are in distress, we can fly to your coordinates in seventeen standard minutes,” Kay said decisively. “Fourteen if Bodhi is willing to risk damage to civilian structures.”

“I’m fine, Kay,” Cassian told his team – his friends – firmly. “Stay where you are. I’m going to wait here for Jyn. We should be back onboard soon.”

“So, wait,” Bodhi asked in mild confusion. “Did Jyn rescue you, or what?”

( _You should leave me_ , Cassian croaked as the last of his strength faded and the pain threatened to overwhelm him at last. Jyn’s arm tightened around his waist. When she answered, her voice was as certain as the stars. _Together, or not at all._ )

“Yes,” Cassian replied softly. “She did.”

 

\--

 

“You’re _kidding!_ ” The mark shrieked a laugh, slapping tipsily at Jyn’s arm. “He really _said_ that?” She propped her hip against the bar and leaned her chin on her hand, striking a distinctly alluring pose and winking at Jyn. “I can’t believe _anyone_ would be so _rude_.”

Jyn smirked appreciatively. “Cost him a couple of teeth,” she said with grim satisfaction. “And he never stays in the room with me if he can help it, now.”

“Serves him right,” the Twi’lek laughed again, and leaned closer under the pretext of speaking over the noise. Jyn allowed it, because the mark had no weapons, no combat training, and was well on towards drunk already. A low threat, and once upon a time, Jyn might even have enjoyed the sloppy, easy warmth of a sweet, nonthreatening partner pressing up against her. It had always been her favorite kind of hookup, an easy, casual affair with a stranger who would probably forget what she looked like by tomorrow. Of course, that was before…well, before the Alliance had dragged her from a prison cell. Before Jedha, and Eadu, and Scarif. Before _Cassian._

“You’re so tough!” the mark nudged Jyn in the side - or tried to; Jyn subtly twisted her body and took the soft blow on her shoulder automatically, but the Twi’lek didn’t seem to notice.   “I prob’ly woulda just cried if he was that nasty to me.”

“That would have freaked him right out,” Jyn shoved another drink towards the mark, cracking the seal on the bottle with one hand. “Nothing gets under those kinds of arseholes’ skins like a woman crying.”

She shrieked in laughter again. “By the power of sobbing!” the mark brandished her drink. “I vanquish you! Mighty Force Rangers,” she explained to Jyn’s blank look. “You know, the defenders of galactic peace? Used to _love_ that as a youngling! Go, go, Green Force!” She jabbed her drink into the air again and struck what looked like the kind of highly ridiculous pose that heroes in children’s holos often took.

At the other end of the bar, a few males – two Humans and a Chagrian - were watching them with the casual curiosity of tiger-sharks.

Jyn smiled as if she found the mark’s incomprehensible rant adorable, and let the girl collapse against her shoulder, laughing. Casually, she looped her arm around the mark’s waist and braced her up. “Easy, sweetheart,” she murmured, trying not to wince as the Twi'lek’s booze-saturated breath rushed across Jyn's face.

Her laughter turned shy and her face flushed a dark blue. She was past the point of usefulness, too drunk to focus, too distracted to give any information. Not that it mattered, Jyn had already gotten the names of her direct superiors, several useful hints about the kinds of personal information those people typically used for passwords, and heard a twenty minute rant about the stupid contract that Admin was forcing them to rush through. Everything someone might need to know in order to slice into the security company’s servers and wreak a little havoc on the Imperial contract in question. For all that her Gravity profile had asked for someone tall and imposing like Cassian, it seemed she was much more comfortable with someone… _less_ tall, like Jyn. She’d been spilling her guts for two solid hours. Jyn wondered how Cassian had passed the time, because she'd never caught sight of him inside the bar again. Probably loitering on a rooftop that let him see all the main exits, waiting for her to come out so they could get out of the system.

Jyn _could_ leave, she knew. Objective complete, mission success, whatever official term Cassian would stick in the after-action report. Jyn had everything, the mark was in no condition to stop her from going, or even really remember everything that happened tonight…in fact, sultry posing and suggestive looks aside, the Twi'lek wasn’t in much of a position to do anything but pass out on the bar floor. That wasn’t Jyn’s problem, of course, and it would make no difference to her mission either way if she left the pretty, drunk girl to shift for herself in an upscale bar in an Imperial town.

The bartender set a full glass of something pink and steaming gently in front of the Twi’lek. Jyn raised an eyebrow at him, and he jerked a careless thumb down towards the far end of the bar, where one of the watching human males gave Jyn a flat, empty-eyed smile when she glanced their way. “Ooh, Tatooine Double Sunrise!” the mark squealed, reaching for the pink glass. Jyn caught her arm, pulled her hand up and kissed the inside of her wrist – a move she had learned from experience was extremely distracting. The mark bit her lip, staring, and Jyn shoved the drink back towards the bartender with her free hand.

The mark giggled loudly again as a new song came over the music stream, and pointed up into the air excitedly. “I love this song! I know a, a friend who dances and this has such a good – it’s catchy because it has a phony- a phony-logic loop or,” she frowned, “something. She studies music like this, my friend, the dancer friend, and she says we know songs like this because of the loop.” She made several lopsided sketches in the air that Jyn assumed were meant to be circles, and then propped her elbows on the bar, displaying a sweet smile and a generous amount of cleavage. The tiger-sharks watched with unreadable eyes.

Well, at least she had backup. Jyn sighed, and leaned against the girl’s curvy side. “Hey,” she said, then, “ _Alnada_ , hey,” a little more loudly than before to get her attention. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah?” The Twi’lek blinked slowly, and then her face brightened. “Yeah! Definitely! Um, maybe we could, um…” she stuttered out, flushing darker blue again as an idea rooted in her thoroughly soused brain. “Well, I mean, if you don’t have anywhere to be, I was just thinking, maybe, um - ”

“I should walk you home,” Jyn offered, tired of waiting for the mark to get over her shyness. “Streets can be rough at night.”

“Yes, perfect, I mean, that would be really cool, if you, um, if you’re up for it,” the girl gushed, clearly struggling between excitement and a desire to appear nonchalant.

“Come on, then, lead the way,” Jyn smiled and towed her as gently as she could manage towards the door and out into the street.

“Right, right, it’s up, I think that way? Yeah, that way.” The Twi’lek gestured vaguely around at the street. Jyn, who had her address memorized, pointed them the right way and strolled as fast as she could without risking her mark tripping. The back of her neck tingled with the sensation of eyes, and she glanced back in time to see the three tiger-sharks slip out of the bar behind them. She looked for a fourth, but wasn’t terribly surprised not to see him. Cassian was much better at shadowing than these local arseholes.

“I usual, usually take the bus,” the mark said loudly in Jyn’s ear. “Safer, and pretty cheap, actually, I mean, since the garrison set up the new, the new, um, routes,” she smiled broadly and staggered against Jyn’s side. “Much more, uh, ‘fficient.”

It probably was more efficient, Jyn thought, steadying the mark. The Imps _loved_ efficiency, and the only price you had to pay to enjoy their streamlined systems was complete and utter obedience.  She smiled vacantly as the mark burbled on about the great new bus system and her dancer friend and a variety of other things. Jyn risked another quick look behind them. The tiger-sharks were blending into the late-evening crowd, but in a few blocks they would be near the Twi’lek’s apartment, and the significantly emptier streets of a poorly-lit residential area. Perfect hunting ground for a certain kind of predator, Jyn thought a touch wryly, because once in another life, she might have been one of them. She’d certainly scored more than a few credits off drunk club-bunnies stumbling their way home. Of course, the tiger-sharks weren’t likely to be after the Twi’lek’s credits.

She still couldn’t see them in the crowd, but the back of her neck still itched, so the next time the mark stumbled, Jyn used the movement to slip her earpiece back into place.

“I’m with you,” Cassian said immediately in her ear, and the tension in Jyn’s chest eased. He must be close enough to have line of sight on her, given how quickly he spoke after she came online.

“I assume you are speaking to Jyn,” Kay said in his precise voice. “Since both Bodhi and I are already aware of your presence.”

“Of course he’s talking to Jyn,” Bodhi replied in exasperation. “You don’t exactly need a lot of context clues for that - ”

“We’ve got tails,” Jyn muttered over their bickering, turning her face slightly away from the Twi’lek.

“In sight.” Cassian’s voice turned brisk and detached. “Intercepting.”

“Standby,” she snapped back as quietly as she could. No need for him to get into a dust up alone against three unknowns while she was stuck propping up the mark. They were almost to the girl’s apartment, anyway. If they could just make it to the doors…

“Oh, hey, um, Nelly,” the girl said brightly, “you wanna come up? Like, for caf? If that’s not too, you know, um,” she blushed dark blue again and squeezed Jyn’s shoulders. “If that’s, um, okay?”

“Nelly?” Cassian asked softly, the warmth seeping back into his voice.

Bodhi laughed. “You had to come up with a name and you chose ‘Nelly?’”

“Sure,” Jyn replied blandly. “Why not?”

“Great,” the mark smiled broadly.

“Incoming,” Cassian said sharply, a moment before a harsher voice called out, “Hey, ladies, how’s your night?”

“Oh, here we go,” Bodhi grumbled, echoing Jyn’s thoughts exactly.

Jyn debated ignoring the males and just legging it into the nearby apartment building (so fucking close, they could probably make it), but the Twi’lek paused and half turned to peer blurrily back. “Hello?”

 _Shit_. Jyn turned with her and glared at the three males stalking out of the alley. The leader, one of the Humans, gave them a shark’s grin and circled around to the left. The other Human circled right. Jyn eyed them, but the real threat was the Chadrian, his horns looming over them as he stepped too close. “Can I give you a hand?” he asked in a surprisingly soft voice, given his size. Jyn sneered and took a small step back so she could meet his eye without straining her neck back.

“Oh, um, no thank you,” the Twi’lek shrank a little against Jyn’s side, her hand clamping down in terror on Jyn’s shoulder and anchoring her in place.  That would make it tough for her to react quickly. A year ago, she would have shrugged the frightened girl off and launched herself at the Chadrian. But then, a year ago, she would have been alone.

So instead, Jyn hitched the Twi’lek closer with one arm and propped the other fist casually on her hip. “Thanks so much,” she said with syrupy politeness, “now fuck off.”

“Hey, wow, no need to be a bitch about it,” the leader said with a smile that still showed too many teeth. “We’re just trying to be nice. Damn, can’t even say hello anymore without getting your head bitten off.” He stepped closer, just behind the Twi’lek’s shoulder, and the girl shivered and tried to turn and face him without looking away from the Chadrian too.

Jyn pointedly shifted her glare from the leader’s smile to his throat, and then back to his eyes. He wanted to play at intimidation? Alright. Even without backup waiting in the wings, Jyn knew how to play _that_ little game.

She stared him dead in the eye, tilted her chin down slightly, and then slowly pulled her lips back in a vicious parody of a smile.

His own grin faltered slightly around the corners, but then he shrugged and leaned back against the dark wall behind him. “You know, normally girls are prettier when they smile,” he said in forced nonchalance. “But I think I’ll make an exception for you, honeybush.”

The dark wall extended a metal hand and clamped it around his shoulder. “Your aesthetic preferences,” Kay said, “are completely irrelevant.”

And then he picked the man up and tossed him carelessly into a nearby dumpster.

The Twi’lek shrieked and threw both her arms around Jyn’s neck. The other Human jumped backwards out of Jyn’s sight with a startled shout, which cut off abruptly with a muffled thump. Her main concern, however, was for the Chadrian, who despite all good sense chose to lunge forward towards the KX droid looming out of the shadows. Unfortunately, Jyn and her charge were directly between them, and the big man clipped the Twi’lek’s shoulder hard enough to spin them both off balance. Jyn grit her teeth and tried to land on her back, shielding the flailing girl from the rough pavement beneath them. The drop didn’t quite knock the breath from her, but the scrabbling girl on top made it hard for her to push back up to her feet.

“Alnada!” She shouted, grabbing the panicked Twi’lek by her arms and shaking her to get her attention. “It’s okay! They’re friends!”

The girl stared at her with glimmering eyes, the contacts catching the faint blueish streetlights and making her look a bit like a holoscreen short-circuiting into static. Then, with a faint sob, she buried her face against Jyn’s neck and went more or less limp. Jyn sighed and patted the back of her head clumsily. In her ear, Bodhi said loudly, “Whatever the hells is happening, I hope you’re winning.”

Above them, the Chadrian crashed into the dumpster, where his friend was trying unsuccessfully to climb back out. The impact knocked the Human back inside with an undignified squawk. Jyn strained to see over the Twi’lek’s shaking shoulder, but the bigger woman had her pinned, and she couldn’t move without hurting the girl. Another crash, and then abruptly the sounds of struggle ceased. Another shadow fell across Jyn’s face, and then Cassian knelt quietly next to Jyn’s head, concern in his eyes despite the small smile on his lips.

“Yes,” Kay said in her earpiece, although not out loud in the street. “We are winning.”

“Wh-what happened?” The Twi’lek quavered against Jyn’s shoulder, and started to lift her head. Before Jyn could do more than widen her eyes in alarm, Cassian’s hand flashed out and he pressed something to the back the Twi’lek’s exposed neck. She jerked, then slumped down again, now a complete dead weight on top of Jyn. She waited a moment to make sure the knock out drug was in full effect, and then huffed angrily, glaring at Cassian.

“Sorry,” he murmured, and slid his hands under the poor girl’s arms to leverage her off of Jyn’s chest.

“I thought you were waiting on the ship,” Jyn looked up at Kay as she pushed herself to her feet and grabbed the mark’s arm to help Cassian brace her up.

“I was,” he said, picking up the now unconscious Chadrian and shoving him carelessly into the dumpster with the other Human. The second human was sprawled on the street behind Cassian, a purple bruise already blossoming across his jawline.

“But he was bored,” Cassian said quietly, his smile curling into genuine humor now that Jyn was on her feet and clearly unhurt. “And someone told him I was in trouble,” he looked pointedly at Jyn, who shrugged unrepentantly.

“An assessment I found to be entirely erroneous,” Kay chimed in reprovingly, lifting the third tiger-shark (more like a Cala-guppy now, Jyn thought uncharitably as she watched the man’s limbs flop and scrape against the pavement) by the back of his expensive looking coat, and dragging him toward the increasingly full dumpster. “We will need to reevaluate your definitions of danger,” he paused, whirred for a moment, and then said with great deliberation, “ _Nelly._ ”

“So I’m taking it everyone’s okay?” Bodhi piped up on the earpiece. “Mission accomplished, everybody headed back to the ship?”

“Standby,” Cassian said calmly, meeting Jyn’s eyes and tilting his head towards the Twi’lek draped between them.

“Just need to drop something off,” she told Bodhi, nodding to Cassian.

“Okay, then I’m signing off unless you ping the emergency channel,” Bodhi replied. “Going to check on that new heating coil, alright? See you soon.” The comm clicked softly as he turned his link to mute.

The Twi’lek moaned softly in her sleep, and Jyn felt Cassian shifting for a better grip on her other side. “Not far,” he said, catching her eye. Together, they moved slowly across the street towards the nice apartment building where the mark lived.

“Yet another unnecessary alteration to operational parameters,” Kay gave the electronic equivalent of a sigh as he chucked the last would-be attacker into the garbage. “Making life more difficult than necessary is a regrettable habit of yours.”

“It’s more like a hobby,” Jyn grunted.

“There’s a doorman,” Cassian said suddenly, jerking his chin at the building lobby as they neared the door. A stocky Roonan sat on a cushioned stool just inside the doors, reading a newscrip and tapping his toes idly. “Kay, stay in the alley. Jyn, go with him, alright?”

It was instinct more than anything that brought a protest to the tip of her tongue, and if it had been anyone else, she would have voiced it. But this was Cassian, so instead she slipped out from under the Twi’lek’s limp arm and moved behind him as he took the girl’s full weight. She reached out and brushed her fingertips across his lower back as she passed, and watched his shoulders relax fractionally, then stepped into the alley with Kay.

“Excuse me,” Cassian tapped on the glass of the door. The doorman hopped to his feet and cracked the door, peering at the passed out Twi’lek and then at Cassian’s face suspiciously.

 _“What is this interruption?”_ he warbled at Cassian, glaring. “ _Has harm come to this youth-resident-female by your hand?”_

“No, sir,” Cassian’s accent was slightly off, a thicker version that sounded much more Outer Rim than usual, and from the shadows Jyn could see the way he ducked his head and subtly rounded his back, mimicking the Roonan’s posture and body language as best as he could. “No, I think she’s just had too much to drink tonight, sir. Do you recognize her? I believe this _youth-innocent-female,”_ he somehow managed to twist his singular tongue around a word created by beings who had three, “must live in this residence.”

 _“Affirmative understanding,”_ the Roonan bobbed his head and bounced slightly on his feet, relaxing under Cassian’s charm. “ _This is my_ _responsibility-resident-female_.”

“Ah, _pleased-relieved sentiment_ ,” Cassian pulled the Twi’lek from his neck and swung her gently into the doorman’s outstretched hands. “Thank you sir, if you could please return her to her residence.” The stocky non-human slung the Twi’lek easily up into his arms and bowed his head slightly towards Cassian.

“ _Well spoken, youth-kind-male,”_ the Roonan turned and let the door swing shut behind him. _“Walk in peace.”_

Cassian nodded and smiled, walking away from the door. Jyn watched as his shoulders straightened and the uncertain friendliness vanished from his face. It was really the only part of their lives that ever resembled those spy holos Bodhi was always talking about, the way that Cassian could don and shed whole personas in a heartbeat. By the time he walked the five meters between the building door and the alleyway, the harmless and unmemorable “helpful stranger” was gone, and there was only Cassian in his place.

Jyn smiled. “Impressive,” she said softly, and Cassian looked down at her in surprise.

“What?”

Jyn pointed to the door, then back at him. “You show up with a passed out girl and a shite explanation, and the doorman doesn’t even question it?” She fell into step with him, bumping her shoulder against his arm slightly. “Charmer.”

To her surprise, he grimaced, and muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t quite catch.

“That is nonsensical,” Kay said from behind them. “You are not damaged.”

Jyn jerked in surprise, and stared up at him. “Damaged?”

Cassian sighed. “That isn’t what I…never mind.” He waved a hand dismissively, but Jyn glared and bumped him again with her shoulder, harder this time. “I was only…” he glanced down at her, then shook his head. “Things have changed,” he said quietly. “And that is a good thing,” he added hastily at her expression. “It _is_. But you were right earlier. I was,” he glanced back over his shoulder at Kay’s looming presence, then offered Jyn a small rueful smile. “In trouble, I suppose.”

Jyn frowned at him, not liking the way his shoulders hunched and his eyes darted away from hers, despite the mild humor in his voice. She reached out and grabbed his elbow, bringing both of them to a stop. A few steps back, Kay also clumped to a halt, watching silently. “So you didn’t make it with some random woman,” she scowled and shrugged her shoulders. “So? That doesn’t make you…” she hunted for the right word. “ _Less._ ”

His smile looked decidedly worn around the edges. “No,” he agreed. “But it isn’t a good trend, not in this work.” He still wouldn’t quite meet her eyes, and Jyn swallowed against the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. It was her fault, she realized with a sharp pang. The only thing that had changed in the last month, the only thing that might be causing his sudden uncertainty and discomfort, was the shift in their relationship.

“Do you regret it?” Jyn’s voice, to her internal disgust, came out significantly softer and smaller than she intended. She cleared her throat and tried to think of a way to explain what she meant by “it,” but before she could say anything, Cassian stepped close and cupped his hand around the back of her head gently, staring at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read.

“Kay,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Go back to the ship.”

K2SO whirred his electronic sigh again. “Try not to get into any more trouble,” he said resignedly, stomping past them.

Cassian waited until the droid’s steps faded around the corner, and then he said in the same uncompromising voice, “Never.”

Jyn closed her eyes, and tried to order the fear lumping in her throat to fuck off. Cassian’s mouth pressing softly against her forehead a moment later helped, and she smiled a little as she leaned into it. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I just…don’t want to be…” she reached up and dug her fingers into the front of his jacket. “Your weakness,” she shrugged at last.

Cassian slid his arms around her shoulders and Jyn leaned into his chest. “Never,” he said again, and then in a quieter voice that slid like warm honey down her spine and into her belly. “Jyn,” Cassian breathed against her ear, “I’m with you.”

Jyn smiled against his chest, safe and happy and _wanted,_ and whispered back, “All the way.”

 


End file.
